Volume 10 Number 18

June 26, 2009

The Cultivation of Students' Metaphoric Imagination of Peace in a Creative Photography Program

Robert J. Beck
Lawrence University, U.S.A.

Citation: Beck, R. (2009). The cultivation of students' metaphoric imagination of peace in a creative photography program. International Journal of
Education & the Arts, 10(18). Retrieved [date] from http://www.ijea.org/v10n18/.

Abstract
The purpose of Picturing Peace, a digital photography program conducted in 4th and 5th grade classrooms in the U. S. and
Northern Ireland, was to enhance students' photographic skills to create
visual metaphors of the concept of peace. Two principal research
questions were addressed: (a) Could 9-10 year-old students create
apt and imaginative photographic metaphors of peace? (b) Would
students in diverse cultures produce comparable photographs of peace?
A model of peace, metaphoric imagination, and metaphoric interpretation w
as researched to test the effectiveness of metaphors in promoting visual
understanding of peace. Barthes' (1981) critical framework of connotative
procedures and linguistic metaphors were used to judge the aptness and
imaginativeness of student photographs. Analysis of an archive of
approximately 2500 photographs revealed several typical images of
peace common to the following three settings: nature, sun/light,
community, diversity, place, peace signs, children play, children
care, spirituality, and body/hands as subjects. Implications were
drawn for the status of the student photographs as metaphors, pictorial
concepts, and/or allegories.